good deal of this faultiness of construction seemed to me due to the many conventional practices which were prevalent at the Paris Opera in Gluck’s time.  Mitterwurzer was the only actor in the, whole cast who gave me any pleasure.  In the role of Agamemnon he showed a thorough grasp of that character, and carried out my instructions and suggestions to the letter, so that he succeeded in giving a really splendid and intelligent rendering of the part.  The success of the whole performance was far beyond my expectations, and even the directors were so surprised at the exceptional enthusiasm aroused by one of Gluck’s operas, that for the second performance they, on their own initiative, had my name put on the programme as ‘Reviser.’  This at once drew the attention of the critics to this work, and for once they almost did me justice; my treatment of the overture, the only part of the opera which these gentlemen heard rendered in the usual trivial way, was the only thing that they could find fault with.  I have discussed and given an accurate account of all that relates to this in a special article on ‘Gluck’s Overture to Iphigenia in Aulis’ and I only wish to add here that the musician who made such strange comments on this occasion was Ferdinand Hiller.

As in former years, the winter meetings of the various artistic elements in Dresden which Hiller had inaugurated, continued to take place; but they now assumed more the character of ‘salons’ in Hiller’s own house, and it seemed to me intended solely for the purpose of laying the foundations for a general recognition of Hiller’s artistic greatness.  He had already founded, among the more wealthy patrons of art, the chief of whom was the banker Kaskel, a society for running subscription concerts.  As it was impossible for the royal orchestra to be placed at his disposal for this purpose, he had to content himself with members of the town and military bands for his orchestra, and it cannot be denied that, thanks to his perseverance, he attained a praiseworthy result.  As he produced many compositions which were still unknown in Dresden, especially from the domain of more modern music, I was often tempted to go to his concerts.  His chief bait to the general public, however, seemed to lie in the fact that he presented unknown singers (among whom, unfortunately, Jenny Lind was not to be found) and virtuosos, one of which, Joachim, who was then very young, I became acquainted with.

Hiller’s treatment of those works with which I was already well acquainted, showed what his musical power was really worth.  The careless and indifferent manner in which he interpreted a Triple Concerto by Sebastian Bach positively astounded me.  In the tempo di minuetto of the Eighth Symphony of Beethoven, I found that Hiller’s rendering was even more astonishing than Reissiger’s and Mendelssohn’s.  I promised to be present at the performance of this symphony if I could rely on his giving a correct rendering